It’s been a long time since I’ve done anything here. You know how life is sometimes, illness, the daily grind, virus’s and lockdown. I did okay during lockdown, mentally. Being autistic, isolation doesn’t bother me, in fact I prefer it to being with people. It was lovely having legislation telling me that I mustn’t try to ‘get out more’ as people often say to autistic folks like me. I felt vindicated and savoured every moment of it. I’m aware lots of people didn’t do well with the enforced isolation and that’s a shame, but I loved it.

Now we find ourselves facing horrendous fuel price hikes, empty shelves in stores because the lorry drivers are quitting in droves, and hardship looming. I’m already going through the process of working out which appliances I can switch off and do without, what foods I can eat that don’t need cooking, and how to keep warm. My mother would say, “it reminds me of the war.” I’m not quite that old. I was 60 a week ago, but I’m not old enough to remember wartime unless you count the Falklands. I wouldn’t mind betting that all elderly grandma’s and grandpa’s are now finding themselves in demand with the rest of us wanting to learn how to get by on nothing and not go mad.

I’ve written two more books since I was last here, another Sinclair V-Log entitled, The Vazien Paradox, and a paranormal novel called 1438 – diary of a shadow man. I’m a few pages short of finishing another V-Log which has a working title of Glowstone. With the time it takes to edit, format, etc, it should be available late spring.

Over the past six months or so, my presence on social media has drastically reduced. This is not a conscious decision on my part, it just happened naturally. I find it too political, too backstabby, and too woke. There’s no chat anymore, no one says hello like they did on the old Myspace I remember with love. If you comment on something, you lose your kneecaps, and people are still posting the same old conspiracies as ever and I’m left wondering if there’s anyone sane left. The spelling and grammar are worse every day, and everyone has something to sell that’s not worth the price. It’s a big yawn nowadays.

The world is crazier than ever. Russia is invading Ukraine, North Korea still hates everyone, America still loves itself, Trump is still orange, and Boris’s hair would give Giorgio Tsukalos a run for his money. Volcanoes are erupting around the world, we’ve had hurricane force winds here in the south of England (thankfully my little area didn’t get any damage), but a few lives were lost, sadly. We’ve ruined our planet beyond our ability to repair it and now we have no choice but to stare our own extinction in the eyes as it hurtles towards us. Elon won’t get us to Mars in time, NASA don’t give a shit, and any sensible aliens passing by would be well advised to put their foot down hard and get right out of here sharpish.

Every night I try to find one positive thing about the day I’ve just lived and it’s getting harder every day to find anything positive. What have I achieved today? I’ll get back to you on that.